


Lonely

by anexorcist



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7706404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anexorcist/pseuds/anexorcist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>– baby, I’m sorry, even though you’re here I’m lonely –</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lonely

**Author's Note:**

> lyrics from Dia Frampton’s cover of “Lonely” by 2NE1. written while listening to “Cryptomnesia” by Cold War Kids.

Tim hears one night, the words that fall easily from Dick’s lips and crackle sweetly through the comm in his ear.

“ _Darling_ ” and “ _love_ ” and “ _you’re my favorite person_.”

But they aren’t meant for him. Tim was never meant to hear them, even though he’s the one who’s  _supposed_  to be hearing them. Since he and Dick are together. Not like brothers or friends or a mentor and his student, no– they’re _together-together_.

But, Dick’s talking to Oracle, to Batgirl, to Barbara, and maybe he doesn’t realize that there’s more than one person in this comm-link. Barbara doesn’t seem to realize either; Tim’s never heard her laugh so easily, so care-free, at least not since he became Robin.

Tim shuts off his comm because Dick and Barbara– they’re each other’s first loves, even though Dick is _Tim’s_  first love. Or maybe, this is just how friends talk to each other. If Steph were still aliv– around, maybe he’d know. If Kon or Bart or anyone else were around, maybe, Tim would know.

* * *

 

Jason visits, with his Outlaw friends trailing behind him, and Tim sees the easy way Dick falls in step with them, easier than the way he falls into bed with Tim.

Laughing and smile, a lingering hand here, bumping shoulders there. It’s so intimate, but they, too, all have a history. One which Tim isn’t a part of.

Dick brushes the hair away from Kori’s face, his eyes melting in the most lovely way. When he reaches Roy, he badgers him into some old but not forgotten secret handshake. With Jason, Dick hooks an arm around the taller man’s shoulders and still tugs him down for a noogie, like he still lives at the manor and Dick’s come home for a visit.

When was the last time Dick touched Tim like that or held his hand or rubbed his shoulders? Even _Jason’s_  eyes are softer when they land on Tim, standing far apart from the rest of them.

* * *

 

One day, he just tells Dick–

Stands behind the couch while Dick’s watching the news because Tim doesn’t think he’d be able to go through with it if he started when he was already drowning in Dick’s blue eyes, burning from his hundred-watt smile, tingling from nimble calloused fingers.

But none of those things have belonged to him in a long time.

One day, he just tells Dick–

The words fall from chapped and bitten-through lips–

“I think we should break up.”

Dick turns then, finally _looks_  at him for what feels like the first time, finally _sees_  Tim after _months_ , and he has the gall to look surprised at what he finds there.

Tim watches his face morph into broken and tired and sad all at the same time, like a mirror of his own insides, and the wrinkles at the corners of Dick’s mouth and eyes become a little more visible.

And then, Tim watches as a shadow passes over Dick’s eyes and they turn cold and far away, and his face becomes passive, handsome as a stone statue, and Tim is still drowning, still burning, still tingling when all he wants to feel is _nothing_.

All he does is give Tim a once-over, and those burning blue eyes make Tim’s skin cold and prickle all over, and all Dick says is–

“Okay.”

–before turning back to the television.

Tim silently returns to their bedroom, and he pulls out the small box at the back of the closet. He places his heart inside, next to the picture of him and the Flying Graysons, next to his first domino as Robin, next to old receipts from late night diner visits, next to a neat stack of post-it notes filled with messy, sweet words. He places his heart inside the small box - it fits with room to spare, it might not have before, Tim had worried - and locks it there.

In the morning, Dick and all of his things are gone. It’s the first time Tim cries since Dick told him he loved him.

He doesn’t fight for Tim, but that’s all Tim ever wanted from anybody.


End file.
